TO: LOW INCOME HOME ENERGY ASSISTANCE PROGRAM (LIHEAP) GRANTEES AND OTHER INTERESTED PARTIES

SUBJECT: LIHEAP Compliance Review Monitoring Schedule:
FY 2014

RELATED Low Income Home Energy Assistance Act, as amended (Title XXVI ofREFERENCES: Public Law (P.L.) 97-35, the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981, as amended).

BACKGROUND: Section 2608(b)(1) of the LIHEAP statute provides that:

The Secretary shall conduct in several States in each fiscal year investigations of the use of funds received by the States under this title in order to evaluate compliance with the provisions of this title.

PURPOSE: To inform LIHEAP grantees about plans to conduct on-site compliance reviews and desk reviews, the criteria used for selecting grantees, and the schedule of States and Tribes selected for FY 2014.

CONTENT: As part of our increased efforts to ensure compliance with the LIHEAP statute and regulations and prevent improper payments, the Office of Community Services (OCS) has revised its compliance review procedures. These steps include:

We have adopted a criteria-based process to select grantees for our reviews. This approach allows us to target training and technical assistance to those grantees that need it most. We rely on several sources of data in order to estimate possible risk for LIHEAP grantees, including annual Plans, Program Integrity Assessments, Carryover and Reallotment Reports, and A-133 audit reports. Using these data sources, we prioritize grantees based on criteria that include the number and severity of A-133 audit findings, the level of grantees’ measures to prevent improper payments, results from our previous compliance reviews, and the training and monitoring performed by grantees. We also prioritize grantees that we have not visited recently. Other factors may be considered, such as ongoing audits and investigations of grantees’ LIHEAP programs by the Office of the Inspector General.

In FY 2013, we visited four States that had already been selected under our former process, as described in LIHEAP-IM-2011-04. Using the approach outlined above, we selected eight additional grantees for on-site review. The grantees we reviewed in FY 2013 are:

FY 2013 Completed Site Visits

Grantee

1

State of Tennessee

2

State of Wisconsin

3

State of New Hampshire

4

State of Nevada

5

State of Montana

6

Fort Belknap Indian Community

7

Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes

8

State of Colorado

9

State of South Dakota

10

Rosebud Sioux Tribe

11

Oglala Sioux Tribe

12

State of Nebraska

13

Passamaquoddy Tribe at Pleasant Point* (desk review)

After refining the selection process, we have selected the following grantees for an on-site visit in FY 2014, with the following estimated dates:

FY 2014 Scheduled Site Visits

Grantee

Date

1

State of Arizona

January 2014

2

Virginia

January 2014

3

Navajo Nation

February 2014

4

State of Kentucky

February 2014

5

State of Oregon

March 2014

6

State of Florida

March 2014

7

State of Michigan

April 2014

8

Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Indian Nation

May 2014

9

Colville Confederated Tribes

May 2014

10

State of Illinois

June 2014

11

State of Iowa

July 2014

12

State of West Virginia

July 2014

13

State of Minnesota

August 2014

14

State of Indiana

August 2014

We will work with each grantee to select specific dates that will minimize disruption to grantees’ operations. OCS staff will contact the grantees listed above to explain the compliance review process, select dates, and request documentation to be provided in advance of the visit. In addition, we may add additional grantees for review, depending on time and resources.